Titan's Plague: The Trial, Tom Briggs [free ebook reader .TXT] 📗

She stood at her workstation, while Jake sat at his. Jeff attended to his duties down in the maintenance level and, if necessary, Pati could turn the cameras on to watch him at work or just make sure he wasn’t up to no good. The twins had been on their best behavior of late, so she didn’t worry.

“Pati,” Jake said.

“What?”

“We’re having difficulties with debris on the landing legs.”

“How did you find out?”

“I checked the exterior cameras and told Jeff to go clear it fifteen minutes ago.”

“Wait, you authorized an excursion without telling me?” Pati asked. “And he exited the ship without a partner?”

“He’s taking a robot with him to help,” Jake said. “The robot works in lieu of a partner, according to the regulations.”

“Yes, but—” 

“I thought you’d rather us show some initiative and get the job done without bothering you,” he said. “You know, you’ve told us that several times.”

“Okay, okay,” she said. “He’s outside already?”

“Yes.”

“Then, I’ll check on him.” Pati changed the display on her screen to the exterior cameras. She could see Jeff in the excursion suit, with a robot about half his height. She couldn’t see the debris, though.

“Jeff, this is Pati, come in,” she said to the communicator at her workstation.

“Pati, I’m almost done. I’ll let you know when in a few minutes,” Jeff said.

“Got it,” Pati said. She sat back, wishing she could turn in for the night, or day. She hadn’t bothered to check the time, although the twins usually worked second shift while Bruno and she took the first. When she took the commander’s job, she didn’t expect that as a commander for convicts she’d have to work one shift and monitor the other. After two months of occupational insomnia, she would spend her leave time sleeping.

“Pati, Jeff said he needs help,” Jake said. “I’m going to suit up, and—”

“No.” Pati stood up. “I’ll go help him.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”

Pati had no intention of letting them work outside together without supervision. She stepped over to the open hatch in the center of the bridge and dove down into the common room using the ladder to guide her. She continued down through another hatch into the maintenance level. The maintenance level kept all the tools and machinery needed to keep the ship running. It also stored their excursion suits, two to a person, in lockers along the wall. She floated over to her locker and opened the metal door.

It took a minute to slide into the excursion suit, which tightened around her green uniform and boots. She carried the helmet to the hatch and donned it. She let the static robot do checks on her suit functions and, after a green light from the robot, she stepped into the airlock. The windowed door slid shut behind her. She waited a few seconds for the air to evacuate and then another green light told her she was ready to exit. She touched the button under the lights to open the exterior hatch.

Pati attached her line to a connecting point next to the door and descended to the iceberg surface. She turned on her light to study minor indentations in the snowy surface, places where a human and robot might have traveled. But she saw no Jeff and no robot.

“Jeff, where did you go?” she said into her helmet communicator. The door shut behind her once she was clear. Pati floated around the landing legs, which fastened the ship to the iceberg. She connected her line to hooks in the legs to keep from floating too far away. While looking for Jeff, she looked for any debris that might have been removed. She found none, nor any sign that debris had been attached.

“Jake, you there?” she asked. She waited for a response and got nothing. “Jake, come in.” Still no response.

Pati didn’t wait. She returned to the hatch, collecting her line as she went, and pulled herself back to the top step by the door. The red light to the left was on, showing an airlock full of air. Before she could tap the manual entry button underneath, she felt the ship lurch upward, ready to launch.

The excursion suits had means for separating waste from the human occupant. Sometimes though, the crew would not bother to disrobe and exit the ship for a short while, expecting to be back in the ship before any such emergencies would arise.

The ship’s movement, with her on the outside where she might be left to die on the iceberg, caused her to lose her bladder. She gripped her line’s connection point and held on, hoping to go with the ship at least. After a few minutes of no movement, she realized the ship wasn’t leaving, and she reached over and tapped the code to open the hatch. She watched three minutes tick off on her helmet display, the time it took for the airlock to depressurize to a vacuum: it seemed like thirty minutes. The hatch opened on schedule, and she pulled herself in.

Pati lost no time activating the controls to shut the hatch behind her, pressurize the airlock, and get back into the ship. The maintenance level was as empty as when she came through, so she doffed the excursion suit and removed her jumper to see the damage. The stain was bad enough to return to her cabin and change, which she then did in her underclothes, expecting Jeff and Jake to be there waiting to enjoy the pain their joke had caused her. For their sake, they’d better be somewhere else.

It took her a minute to change her underclothes and into an identical jumper, and a few minutes after that to quietly return to the bridge. She held onto the ladder, looking at the back of Jake, who seemed not to notice she’d returned.

His actions, or lack of, were as big a lie as if he’d sworn he had nothing to do with the ship almost launching. He monitored the cameras that recorded everything on the ship, and the movement of the ship could only be initiated from the bridge. He would know when the airlock was activated, and when any hatches were opened and shut. He could even see her change clothes if he wanted, a fact she long learned to live with.

She’d get her chance, though. Maybe not in a report, and maybe not in a physical manner. They’d pay for this, both of them, before their time was up.

* * *

“Last trip,” Pati said under her breath. She and Bruno had just pulled in a load of water, and the tanks were over half full. They’d identified three more icebergs to land on, and after that, they’d have a full load. Those icebergs were on the way back to Karakorum, back to freedom, and then back to Earth.

She looked up from her console and over to Bruno. He’d learned about controlling his temper in the last three months, at least he did when Pati was around. Whether he’d be a better citizen as a result wasn’t her problem. He did what he was told, most of the time, and that was enough for Pati to endorse his parole when they returned. Bruno would not thank her for it, but she didn’t expect him to either.

Pati returned her attention to the parameters displayed on her screen. The twins were resting in their rooms, or at least their heartbeats and respiration matched the usual readings when they slept. Pati learned never to trust anything about those two she didn’t see with her own eyes.

Doing so caused her to grow a few levels in resourcefulness and ingenuity. The deadly tricks they played forced that growth, and that growth wouldn’t have happened to Pati McLear living the good life on Karakorum.

To combat their tricks, at the end of the second month, she stored evidence at Karakorum. Evidence that normally disappeared after one of her near-fatal accidents. Before the last trip out, she showed them how that evidence would be sent straight to the constables should another unfortunate event happen to her. They got the message and had a newfound concern for her wellbeing since any accidents, even if they weren’t the cause, would send them on a long trip back to Earth.

“Damn!” Bruno yelled.

Pat swung around. “What is it?”

“Our life support systems just went offline.”

“Offline, you mean an electrical issue?”

“I mean we’re not getting power to the machinery that makes our air and heat.”

“You sure it’s not a sensor malfunction?”

“It’s not the sensors showing the problem. It’s the electrical current going to life support. It’s gone down to zero.”

“Initiate emergency-retrograde procedures to Titan,” she ordered.

“We’re twelve hours out and only have a partial load of water,” Bruno said.

“And if we run out of air, we won’t be getting a full load, either. Do it.”

“Engaging,” Bruno said. She felt a moment of acceleration toward the floor, and that was it. There would be no rocketing directly back to Titan in this emergency. The best they could accomplish was to change their orbit around Saturn to get there sooner. It should buy them enough time to come up with a plan to stay alive.

“Wake up Jeff and Jake,” Pat said.